Monday, February 28, 2011

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Nicki Minaj

NIKKI MINAJ & art

Nikki Minaj performing


In the 1970's the music scene from the neighborhood bands to the big time groups like the Ebony’s, or funk masters like Mandrill, Chuck Brown, Tower of Power, James Brown, and innovators of sound like War, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Oregon, Al DiMeola, Chick Corea, Yes, Pink Floyd, Herbie Hancock, Airto Moriera, and the master composers, and musicians, some of whom I've named like Brazil's Hermento Pascoal, and Weather Reports Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul put a huge pressure on serious musicians at every level. When drummer Tony Williams left the scene to study his craft, become a student, hone his craft, and musicianship musicians knew they had to go deep within themselves.


The need for fame whispered in the air, but old cats felt obligated to hip young musicians to the work of playing music, and place in its proper perspective. The practice, and the way one practiced led to serious jam sessions you dared not enter with just pretty looks, and a wish. Your 'shit' had to be tight, the older musicians used to say. Even it was tight you braced for constructive criticism. If you couldn't take that you needed to get out of the sessions because everybody was getting better advise, and encouragement. You couldn't take yourself too serious.

Most musicians got high. Drugs were the further connection to the Muse, the intangible breeze of creativity in the air we all felt, and responded to. Weed for the young musicians, heroin for those old jazz cats, acid slowly creeped into black circles, but it was stereotyped to white, crazy hippies. I was disciplined, and trained of spirit and emotion. I was the only one in the band who didn’t get high. I already had access. My first band I led. We had a French cat on sax player. We had to send him north in Morocco to find us gigs. He was a wild boy. Brother was a pale red headed dude. He could blow, but he lived in a far off land called: "Where you at?" He would solo like Charlie Parker on 'Cherokee' to the electronic blending of sounds, and styles of Al DiMeola's music. It didn’t fit. In Paris he used to ride into the traffic in a straight line! Anyone who has been to Paris knows how crazy Parisians are on the road. We never heard from him again.

Most musicians were not business savvy. We were deep in the music, the sounds we heard and gravitated to. We thought life flowing from us in our music would, in reverse, reward us with great paying gigs, and we'd play hard, and righteous, and wind up on stage with one of the cats we dug so much. Most Americans, educated, come out profoundly ignorant about money. Financial intelligence among the populace is not a desirable thing for a country like ours. Tens of thousands of dreams have died because of this obvious flaw in the American system.

Motown, and its competitors groomed their artists in every aspect of personal, and musical development. The business of music did not invest in the financial intelligence of its artists. It nurtured the need to know relationship with their talent, and smiled on the dependence and slight feeling of uneasiness musicians felt with and without lawyer representation. I couldn't tell how many musicians woke up feeling a nagging sense of loss around money, and the dim but hard press in the gut that said you ain't going to make a living at this; get a day gig, or a rich white woman who dug jazz musicians. Thelonius Monk had a long and deep relationship with a rich European woman who was devoted to him, his music, and the jazz community in New York. I think she loved him. She was emotionally isolated from her blood family because of her need to be in the New York jazz scene.

Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye were the first major artists who took control of their product. Their business acumen blew everybody's mind. It opened us up, and shed light on our ignorance. Hip Hop's genius lies in several things. For this story I am looking at the connections they made that made business a part of the musician’s craft. It's a beautiful thing.

I saw the R&B singer, Nicki Minaj; perform on the Letterman Show, an awards show, and something else. She is electricity, water, and fire. She stands out. She has the color, the energy, and the imagination of all the ancestors of Black music, and beyond rolled into a short body. There is a lot to enjoy about Nicki Minaj, and analyzing her is absurd. She needs to be seen and experienced. Belonging to a small handful of artists who connect spirituality with sound on her level is a great tribute. I hope she inspires young people to expand their choices beyond the clichés of popular culture into who they are, and why they agreed to come into this world. – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories




Tuesday, February 22, 2011

a marriage between a woman & a man=BALANCE

Renata Porkolab marrying her husband by Edit Magyar

"The beauty of ceremony...May this union find ways to embrace, remember the 'the why we wed', and be consistent reciprocating love to each other." ~ Gregory E. Woods (Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories

NIKKI MINAJ,

Nikki Minaj on red carpet BET awards, best female artist & new artist 2010


Monday, February 21, 2011

MAORI TATTO

"The central Line is the Line to Creator Consciousness the Aho is very Sacred, sometimes symbolized as the Sacred Vine/Tree and many others. The two curvilinear designs represent the Family and the child within it as you see ...it is protected. There is always symmetrical balance and harmony in the design so that masculine and feminine are always side by side as in Mother and Father God as One entity of Celestial relationships. There are notches which also have multiple associations and each of the inner lines attempt to fill the spaces and leave others empty to represent the constant interplay of tapu and Positive presence and noa as Negative absence. Tapu is symbolic of masculine energetics and Noa is symbolic of feminine energetics. They always occur together as One dynamic. In the exercise of power Tapu has within it an organising principle of tapu and noa again. In this sense tapu can be used to expand the power in a space, situation, building or it can be used to restrict entry onto such places and spaces. Noa is mostly used to 'neutralise' and make accessible, habitable again for general usage." - Ngaronoa Taki

Thursday, February 17, 2011

LOVE IN EXISTENCE by Adruma Victoria


ANK carrier
"The major point of human existence is to complete love. God as a spiritual vertical being cannot occupy spherical love alone. The appearance of man and woman usher the realm of horizontal love in the physical realm. Vertical and horizontal together create the multidimensional experience to fulfill love. There are mysteries, yet reality shows that God lost His beloved in the onset of human history. Love was to have God alone as the vertical subject. Angelic and human violation of divine intention bore the fruit of arrogant love that uses others for self sake.
Marriage can vibrate at the frequency of divine rapture when centered on the divine = natural = your joy is my indulgence, causing the Lord to say where in the hell have you been? My son, my daughter I love you, thank you for honoring my beautiful love.


When man and woman master the blueprint of original love, each couple can quote James Brown, "so nice, dat dat, so nice, I got you dat dat dat dat dat dat dat dat dat....YEAHHHHHHHH"


Adruma Victoria (December 30, 2010)

Camille Grammer & Kelsey Grammer
Camille Grammer & husband Kelsey Grammer

exquisite beauty in blue 2


"I think the determing factor in marriage hinges on the creation story the couple and the man or woman live under. If the wife has internalized the energy of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is a whole different ball game. If the couple is a traditional couple, say, from the Iroquois nation submission is not in the picture. Lineage ran along the mother's line among the Iroquois, and my people, the Absaroka, and the Muskogee so marriage had an energizing preoccupation with balance unlike the Hebrew tradtion as we know it today." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories






MAORI TRADITION AMONGST MEN



"...a deep tradition your people have kept alive, Ngaronoa." - Dawn Wolf

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

ADINKRA symbol = Nyame Dua

symbol of God's presence & protection NYAME DUA tree of God, altar

The Nyame Dua is a sacred spot where rituals are performed. Erected in front of the house or compound, it is crafted from a tree that has been cut where three or more branches come together. This stake holds an earthenware vessell filled with water and herbs or other symbolic materials for purification and blessing rituals.




PREREQUISITE FOR MARRIAGE: introspection

“I am a single dad with a three year old son by a woman I love very much and desire to marry. She is a very strong and accomplished woman, who believes that I am not ready for marriage. I will admit that I am living at home with my mother and my job situation is not as secure as hers. How do I bring myself to a place of readiness?” - anon.


My first question: Why does she think you are not ready for marriage?


Persia Pele & her man

I have five questions: Are you judging yourself? Is living with your mother wrong, or shameful? Is your job not measuring up to a standard? What could the standard be? Are you in a job that is connecting you to your purpose?


My other questions stem from my recollections of the process I took to become a married man. Outside of the fear your woman will leave you why should you get married? What is your definition of marriage, and manhood? Merging. Do you understand the concept, and the practice in relationship to marriage? What do you understand about ceremony, and the history of your family’s stories of marriage?

Your mother-son relationship tells many stories. Does your woman scorn you, or the relationship with your mother? Technology has changed marriage, and the definition of marriage. Where do you stand in the midst of these changes? Are you rigid holding fast to ideologies better suited for times past, or are you weighing the issues raised for and against marriage? Are you engaged in the dialogues shifting around accepted stories, and beliefs about women, marriage, and childrearing honestly, or as a man fixated on dominance in marriage, and childrearing?

There are many questions to be faced and answered. The basic and simplest questions boil everything down to this: “everything boils down to a question of life and death.” What will you put on your altar to face with truth, your truth? These are fundamental questions you should answer outside of the clichéd beliefs common to man-talk, and religious-speak. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

lovers by Madeline Bernadette Scot


OWL MEDICINE


A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolizes eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and nature. The circle touching all 5 points indicates that the spirit, earth, air, water and fire are all connected. - Lillian Roi

Monday, February 14, 2011

ELIZABETH TAYLOR


"Elizabeth Taylor, the actress, but mostly Elizabeth Taylor, the woman is an ideal, an American ideal. The ideal of America was forged during and after the nefarious deeds that tainted people around the globe, and their various cultures. Once the supremacy of the idea, and the fact of white America, and Americans became a hammer above the heads of subjugated nations it became a gospel that fear enforced, and the images that came from this ideology became the additional lure of Elizabeth Taylor, the ideal. She was elegant, and beautiful in a magical, and unapproachable way. Women in other cultures exposed to the American culture learned to despise, and re-define themselves, and their men learned to gauge beauty by the Hollywood standards penned, and directed from those studios. At the top of the heap of idols, and inaccessible Goddesses reined Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, and on and on into the present we can go to find their inheritors. They were a small elite group, but they shaped the images in millions and millions of minds into what they were not: white."
©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories




Elizabeth Taylors' tiaras were world famous.


AGE, MYSTICISM, & MYSTERY: a creation story

SHANELLE GAYDEN, age & beauty re-defined


"Wait until a mystery unfolds before your eyes, Shanelle. When the years come, and you realize powers of maturation, of growth, and the development of the meaning of beauty cannot be contained in a moment, or a year something intangible will enter your being and you will become what many women, and the beauty industry, and fashion industry shun and/or downplay to young girls, and women..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories






black woman with long dreadlocks by Element Everest
Bori in red

dark beauty of Bria's face

"All colors are enhanced, or fortified by dark skin. Dark skinned beauty is the depth of origin, and original ideals and ideas of beauty, and it is a creation story overlooked more often than not by what is misunderstood about magic, mysticism, and mysterious things outside our peripheral vision of the worlds." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories


A WOMAN'S STORY: Teri Garr

“Teri Garr, for me, was and is a singular beauty meaning there is a singular thread connecting her to a flow of energy so subtle one could possibly miss it if they wanted to take from her that which she would freely give away: magic.” – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories http://www.fanpix.net/gallery/teri-garr-pictures.htm 

Teri Garr starred as Suze in Kabluey


Teri Garr always left me a bit out of breath in any role she played. Why? That is my delightful story to tell some other day of another year. Not this one. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

A moment to reflect

"Orange Ghost 2"


Why do you beckon my soul
I am in torment
Snared vision as you writhe
Roaring in excruciating grief without end
Twisting and clawing
Rolling and pawing
Until your immense strength ebbs to empty


They want you
Only you
But only lifeless and for Mammon


Magnificent striped pelt
Ivory steel fangs and claws


Supportive pillar bones
Life-creating genitalia
Third eye whiskers


No end to fantasies of anatomy so ageless
And yet more desire all of you
Only you
But only commodity and lust


Dreamless nights
Nightmare days
Constant psychic moaning and booming
My head cannot shutter out
Or keep under lock and key
Or barricade with steel and concrete
And my soul aches in your snare
Unable to escape
Wanting to help but directionless
Desiring to save but powerless


Yet you remain
Roaring even after bloodshed
Unholy sacrifice to Avarice
Few dare to cease


Your phantom cannot be ignored...

- Jen Dowdy 


Tiger by Jen Dowdy 4


VALENTINE'S DAY: a traditional story

 Coyote Man Tricks Beautiful Woman - Nez Perce

A beautiful young woman looked into the water of the river and cried because she had learned that the man she was to marry, died in battle. All that they brought to her was his bloody shoe. "Why did it have to be my man?" she cried to God. Coyote was licking himself in the shade when he heard her sob to God, asking him why her man had died. He peeked at her through the brush.

"What a lovely girl!" he thought. "I must have her." In lust, Coyote transformed into Coyote Man. "I know why," he said, coming out of the tall grasses. Beautiful Woman stared at him with tears in her eyes. He was a stranger and very attractive.

"Why?" she asked him. "Because God is far away on a hunting trip. How can he watch his children when he is away."
"Who watches us then?" she asked Coyote Man.

Plainly he spoke. "I do." Coyote man sat beside her on the bank and caressed her and calmed her. "I will be your man, for now."
Beautiful Woman let him love her. Coyote Man got up. It was late in the day. She asked, "Will you stay with me?"
He smiled at her. "No. I can not stay with you." She realized that he was Coyote. She yelled, "Go away from me."
He smiled again. "Shit happens." He muttered as he walked back into the brush.

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories


Saturday, February 12, 2011

PO’ WHITE FOLK

Regan Reese
#1


“... This brother is a pitiful reminder of the historical chasm between rich and poor whites. This relationship is long, dark and dangerous, and to this day poor whites have been losing out as they are fed a deep sense of un-entitlement, and the yawning fear that accompanies this way of feeling about oneself. In colonial times rich whites named poor whites 'crackers' and the elemental contempt within this word has become something unsatisfied within poor whites that easily leads them to a false superiority. They are my relatives, part of who I am, and I am part of them.” –Dawn Wolf

#2

“I just moved to another city...had to leave my home state because, and this is not an exaggeration, no one spoke English anymore. Now, in my new city there are an awful lot of white people that talk about "diversity" and "coexist" but they have not seen what I have seen. Yeah, it's great to tout "diversity" and "coexistence" as long as you are the majority. But, heads up people, by the time you notice that you are not in the majority it will be too late. Call me racist if you want (I know I am not) but when third world people move into your neighborhood the neighborhood goes to hell. I've seen it, I've lived it. The U.S. government has failed to protect its citizens from a foreign invasion. When are the people of the U.S. going to stand up for themselves? Because, once the Latins are the majority I can guarantee you that they will not be so concerned with being politically correct.” - Veritas

#3

“I am astonished and amused at the deep level of fear whites live under. It is traceable, and tangible. Veritas, your comments speak eloquent of how the world looks to you. We Africans and Indian people have talked of this fear for centuries and learned how to survive as best we could in such a way white’s fears are quelled. Their fear not placated has historically been dangerous, and millions of people have died because of these fears. Come into the sacred ceremonial place of healing with the rest of us recovering, healing from the wounds your people have inflicted upon others.” Dawn Wolf

#4

“Well this means we have a little more time before the U.S. becomes a third world country. When whites loose political power in the U.S. we will become a socialist, corrupt, impoverished state just like the majority of Latin America.” –Neil W. 

#5

“Ever wonder what 90 million Natives thought and felt in their graves in the first 50 years after the white man came to Turtle Island, to the Americas? Now is the time for whites to enter the healing circles your fear and dominant paradigms shy from with the rest of us who have suffered, and now heal from

HATHOR

Hathor (Het-hert)
art by Procer Khepri

My Version of Hathor: 11'

Hathor (Het-hert)

Symbols: cow, lioness, falcon, cobra, hippopotamus, sistrum, musical instruments, drums, pregnant women, mirrors, cosmetics
Cult Center: Dendera

The horned cow-goddess of love, she was also the deity of happiness, dance and music, and a protector of women. She is depicted as a cow, as a woman with the head of a cow, or as a woman with who wears the stylized cow-horns which hold in them the solar disk. Her symbols also included the papyrus reed, the snake and a rattle called a sistrum.

Early in Egyptian mythology she was known has Horus' mother (later Isis assumed this role). Proof of this is seen in her name, "Hathor" which means the "house of Horus". As the mother of Horus, the queen of Egypt was identified with her. This is natural, as the queen was the mother of the Pharaoh, the living Horus. Isis was often shown with cow-horns like Hathor's on her head when the artist wanted to emphasize her role as the mother of Horus.

It was said that when a child was born, Seven Hathors came to his bedside to announce his fate. The Seven Hathors were believed to know the future and the moment of death for every Egyptian. A person's destiny depended on the hour of their death and the luck of ill-fortune was connected with it. It was believed that the Hathors would exchange a prince born to ill-fortune with a more fortunate child, therefore protecting the dynasty and the nation. The Hathors were shown as a group of young women playing tambourines and wearing the disk and horns of Hathor. During Ptolemaic times (when Greeks ruled over Egypt), they were identified with the Pleiades.

In the Story of Re, she was created by her father Re as "Sekhmet" as a destroyer of men, who were disobedient to him. Later Re changed his mind, but even he could not stop her from killing men. He then disguised beer as blood and when Sekhmet became drunk, she could no longer kill and was known thereafter as Hathor, a goddess of love.

Her cult was centered in Dendera where she was a goddess of fertility and childbirth. In Thebes she was seen as a goddess of the dead, and the Greeks identified her with Aphrodite (their goddess of love).

by Procer Khepri






Thursday, February 10, 2011

Queen Rania Criticized by Jordan Tribes

By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times Staff

Queen Rania, the wife of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, was publicly accused of “corruption,” by tribes in Jordan, according to reports by AFP and other media on Wednesday.


"We call on the king to return to the treasury land and farms given to the Yassin family (of the queen). The land belongs to the Jordanian people," said 36 tribal leaders in a joint statement this week, AFP reported.

In Jordan, public criticism of the royal family can be met with a three-year prison term.

Rania has achieved status as an international celebrity, frequently makes trips to United Nations meetings, and is known for her charitable works for women.

However, she was slammed by the tribes, accusing her of stealing money and getting involved in politics.


They warned that if the 40-year-old queen does not stop and if political reform does not come in the near future, then they will instigate protests in a similar vein to Tunisia and Egypt.


"Political reform is now an urgent matter that cannot be delayed, holding the corrupt and thieves accountable and freezing their assets, prohibiting them from traveling are all part and parcel of political reform,” the tribes stated, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Jordan recently experienced large protests in the street, calling for reforms. However, the protesters did not make any comment about the king or queen.

"We still have loyalty to the Hashemite throne, but we believe that King Abdullah should stop his wife and her family from abuse. Otherwise, the throne might be in danger," a member of a large tribe told AFP.

Tribes in the desert country make up around 40 percent of Jordan’s population.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50932/


balance


actress Halle Berry



“In these times breasts are discussed in the 3rd person as if a woman is detached from the vitality of her essence. Scientists, doctors, plastic surgeons, men, health officials, talk show hosts, journalists, parents, and the media do not speak of the relationship of the woman’s triangle. Their thoughts are not intertwined with this geometry. Who has heard the language of the breasts, the vagina outside of anger, desire, denial, or the self-contempt that tinges the decisions to augment the breasts? Our children gain understanding of the breasts, the vagina, and the womb from long distances away from the sacred text of body, the sacred relationships that hold life together in a stream of consciousness in a woman’s body. Sex is introduced or intuited through fear, and shame and because shame, and fear passes for education children grow up, not with a sense of the divine, but with judgment, and consequences, and a vision of their sexual urges in league with death; their death! In this context children’s field of vision around the body, the soul, the spirit of women, is as narrow as the religious constructs of the Church in America, and the mosque in Islamic countries.” ©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

 
black lovers, Bria & her man





 

WEALTH

Reading about J. Paul Getty's grandson's life shocked me. Measuring the value of life against the value of blood staggered my sense of right. Imagine the brutal shock to one's young life force to be under the terror of being kidnapped, and not knowing if death was coming at such a young age. If the news  his grandfather wouldn't pay the whole ransom for tax purposes didn't send him towards insanity the torture must have done the job, and paralyzed him with fears his previous life had not perceived possible. On his soul, his damaged body a complex of emotions must have conquered, and overwhelmed his mind never to let go until his early death at 54.

If the grandson inherited the Western inclination to separate, and isolate God did this send him bitterly away from connecting with any energy outside of the narrow confines of his torment, his body, the small place he was held captive, and later life itself?  These questions I will never get an answer to.

What is wealth? What has value? What is real: capital, or life?

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1215.html

The article I read about J. Paul Getty's personal thoughts revealed some things about J. Paul Getty I suspect would be the thoughts of many wealthy, and rich people. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

DEATH, WEALTH & PARENTING: J. PAUL GETTY



The Getty Family in Focus


by Mike Krumboltz 
 
 
The recent death of J. Paul Getty III sparked massive interest in the Getty family, its source of wealth, and its many triumphs and tragedies.


Getty, 54 when he died, was the troubled grandson of an oil magnate and the father of actor Balthazar Getty. J. Paul Getty III was infamously kidnapped in the 1970s at the age of 16. The kidnappers demanded millions of dollars in ransom, but J. Paul Getty, his grandfather, would pay only a portion of it. The 16-year-old was tortured by the kidnappers, losing an ear, before his eventual release.

Sadly, his later life was also full of difficulties. He became addicted to drugs and suffered a debilitating stroke. At the time of his death, he was nearly blind and paralyzed below the neck.

Stories like this, while tragic, do inspire massive searches on Yahoo!. Online interest in "getty family" surged a whopping 4,032% overnight. Interest in "getty family fortune" spiked over 500%, and lookups for "getty museum" also posted triple-digit gains in Search.

Much like the Kennedy family, the Gettys have been blessed with great fortune and great misery. The grandfather, J. Paul Getty (the first) was, at the time of his death, one of the richest Americans to ever live, thanks in large part to his founding of the Getty Oil Company.

He was also well known for being frugal with his fortune. When his grandson was kidnapped and the criminals demanded $3 million in ransom, J. Paul Getty reluctantly agreed to pay only $2.2 million, because that was the maximum amount that was tax-deductible. He loaned his son the additional $800,000 at 4% interest.

J. Paul Getty III had one son, Balthazar Getty. Balthazar is a popular TV actor and has had roles on "Alias" and "Brothers and Sisters." He also starred as Ralph in the 1990 adaptation of "Lord of the Flies." He had a brief relationship with actress Sienna Miller in 2008. Yahoo! searches on "balthazar getty" and "balthazar getty photos" both jumped over 8,000% after his father's death.


Sources:

J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles Times: J. Paul Getty III dies at 54 
IMDb: Balthazar Getty 
New York Times: J. Paul Getty Dead at 83 
New York Times: J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies 




Tuesday, February 8, 2011

ANNA NICOLE SMITH, dead at 39


Laid to rest


Locals stand before the grave of Smith at the Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Nassau, Bahamas, on March 2, 2007. (Robert Sullivan / AFP - Getty Images)
 
 

Underestimated power: what we can't have

Anna Nicole Smith before she died

Anna Nicole Smith
Subject Of Latest Leaked Document
December 23, 2010 7:52 AM


 
Anna Nicole Smith

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Anna Nicole Smith may have been just a “B-list celebrity,” but she hit the Bahamas like a hurricane, spreading scandals that toppled a string of officials and endangered the whole government, according to newly leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.


The government fell two months after the last cable was written.

“Not since Category 4 Hurricane Betsy made landfall in 1965 has one woman done as much damage in Nassau,” reads a colorful November 2006 document, apparently written by Deputy Chief of Mission D. Brent Hardt. It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian late Tuesday.

“Lying in disarray in her wake are Doctor’s Hospital, the Coroner’s Court, the Department of Immigration, local mega-lawyers Callenders and Co., formerly popular Minister of Immigration Shane Gibson, and possibly Prime Minister Christie’s PLP government,” the diplomat added.

The cables, classified as confidential, described how Smith’s remarkably rapid success in gaining permanent residency led to the ouster of Gibson while the alleged bungling of her son’s treatment and death cut short the careers of several lesser officials while energizing the political opposition and the press.

The last cable was dated March 2007, two months before the Progressive Labor Party lost an election despite a strong local economy. It noted that the opposition Free National Movement “has used these scandals to seize the offensive in the run-up to elections.”

The heiress, former Playboy playmate and reality TV star filed for legal residency in the Bahamas on Aug. 11, 2006, according to the cables, and was granted it about a month later, even though the process sometimes takes years and her ownership of a home – the basis for her application — was in dispute.

The cables note that Gibson, who approved the application, was hit by allegations he had received a $10,000 check and a $25,000 watch from Smith, who also allegedly hired his father to work on her yacht and his mother to baby-sit her children.

Officials denied any wrongdoing, the diplomat wrote, and said “glibly that the Ministry of Immigration should not be criticized for ‘improved efficiencies in government for which it deserves praise.”‘

Gibson finally resigned in February 2007 after a local newspaper published photographs of Gibson embracing Smith in her bed.

The diplomat said that before Smith arrived, Gibson was popular for tough anti-immigrant policies.

“The Anna Nicole scandal has recast Gibson as puppet of the privileged rather than defender of the common people of The Bahamas.”

Several local hospital and coroner’s office officials also were removed following allegations of inefficiency or cover-ups in the death of her son Daniel.

Smith herself died in February 2007 at a Florida hotel and is buried in the Bahamas next to her 20-year-old son.

In October 2010, a boyfriend and two doctors accused of enabling Smith’s prescription drug use were acquitted of most drug charges. But Howard K. Stern, Smith’s boyfriend-lawyer, and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, her psychiatrist, were convicted of conspiring to get her painkillers and sedatives.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)





2/8/07


Monday, February 7, 2011

RAPE: girl raped by school mates in moving car

 Here the girl is not a victim but equally responsible for what ever that has happened she had mutually agreed to have sex with her boyfriend and his friends as she was caught in a compromising position with the boy friend, she is trying to save the guy and lodged complaint against other guys bit has not mentioned the fourth guy which is sickening, she has not given the whole story the media without getting the details has published it and has not acted with responsibility, the girl and her boy friend should be remanded to the police custody as well.” - Sanjay Prasad


“Regardless of the girl’s guilt or innocence she had sex with more than one boy in a closed space. As foul as that is to us, and our sense of good, and justice we are not paying attention to the truth, the act, the boys, and the practice they learned: gang rape. Where I am in the world, in the Washington DC area, people call it ‘running a train on a girl’.



A man like me asks, “How in the hell do you have sex with a woman others have just had, and still others are waiting to have sex with as other’s watch?”


In the last year, I was in jail working with teenage inmates. There was a funny, good-looking Black kid bragging about his sexual skills with women. He talked on and on to the amusement of his audience until I got sick of it, and told him to sit his narrow behind down. I laid my blanket on the floor motioning for them to sit. I poured my story stones on the blanket, and began to share my father’s teachings to me at their tender ages of 14 and 15.


My father stood in front of me his hands extended palms up and asked me a question that altered the shape of my life.


“On the one hand I could teach you how to be a man. On the other I could teach you how to be a playboy.”


I remember bristling with excitement touching his right hand because, more than anything, I wanted to be like Daddy: a man.


“Good,” he said, “what I’m going to teach you is applicable to both. A playboy is the lowest common denominator of a man.”

 

That boy, the funny cat, plopped down on the hard floor resting his arms on my blanket, and lapsed into a solemn silence listening to my teachings about sex, sexual energies, Punany, and women. At the end of the teaching circle two boys pulled me to the side, and shared a horrifying story. They had a lot of questions about women and marriages they realized through my stories they couldn’t have because, as they explained, men during their elementary, and junior high school years taught them how to ‘run a train on a woman’!!!! Sparing you the details I was dumbfounded, and grieving in respectful silence listening to their long story, and their detailed questioning of my teachings about sex, and women.



There is a cultural support for this behavior. It is a behavioral pattern intimate with sports, crime, and war. It is so prevalent around the world that it goes without public discourse because we are trained by religion, and culture to minimize the worlds of thought, and yearnings evil creates in a righteous heart. The depth of this mindset is menacing, and full of powers persuading, and intimidating millions, for all of the wrong reasons, to look away. How do we protect our daughters, and sons from this belief system? How do we release the hold of religious doctrine, and dogma that feeds and supports this terror? How do we undo the story millions of men learn and internalize as a rite-of-passage, and accept as a norm?


- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories


ANNA NICOLE SMITH

Anna Nicole Smith waves during an appearance backstage during the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia on July 2, 2005. The production company behind the concerts claimed in a lawsuit against Trimspa Inc. that its reputation was damaged by Smith's attire and conduct. Smith, a spokesperson for Trimspa, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Coke Whitworth / AP)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

BLACK PRIDE: Wendy Raquel Robinson



Wendy Raquel Robinson is a great source of pride. She is typically cast as a singular character: a black woman, usually educated and professional, who is ghetto as hell, but aching within about the structural things out of balance from her childhood. Her character’s professional standing requires, her dreams require, and her man needs something less confrontational from her, but that is all she has got. Continually Wendy Raquel Robinson, the actress, finds nuances within this type cast. Her portrayals of these women are fascinating and respectful of a segment of the Black community often on the defense about the way they must survive in an unforgiving environment. I have my soul injuries inflicted by the women she portrays. Over time I became unforgiving and bitter towards their compelling paradigms, and developed a difficulty resisting their enormous sensuality. Their sexual appetites, and prowess is legendary, and you cannot count the men unable to pull away long enough to catch their breath and measure what could really happen, or is happening to their lives, and any dreams they must fulfill in life being intimately involved with these women. Incredible lovers with sharp tongues, good looks, fierceness, determination and grit to match an undertow of rage are the stuff of a stereotype worn with measurable pride by these women who are the Black American family’s growth or demise.


Wendy Raquel Robinson does a service to a misrepresented, but significant symbol in the Black American community. The definitions of power these women have designed for their children's survival and their survival are hard for reasons many of us prefer to overlook, and pretend do not exist, or respect. The deepest thing to do as a Black man is to fathom our women. Who speaks for them, or host national campaigns on their behalf? The elite cannot wrap their head around the deadly qualities, or the heart of what matters to these women, and nor do they want to. Black men love and need to talk it out amongst themselves, and with Black women present it often disintegrates into diatribes, and little is accomplished. Because so many of these women and men base relationships, parenting, and marriage upon conflict some people walk out of those roundtable discussions to bed, and little is resolved, and the legacy of dysfunction is passed to their children.

Black men; honest in their fear of these women, love them. How to navigate through the hell these women put them through leads some of them to discover what they truly believe and opens the way to discover why they are attracting these women’s paradigms into their lives. Listening to and hearing their stories without anger, or judgment becomes easier over time if they're not trying to get between their legs. If a man’s eyes are riveted to their women’s eyes they could see their woman’s world. Exploring these women as they explore their worlds is an act of power. It’s a lover’s quest. It requires a depth, and a sponsorship. Without assistance of an elder statesman, or a wise Black woman a Black man will not be able to grasp the tools to mend a broken heart, lessen the need for defending himself against his Black woman.

Loving a Black woman like the women Wendy Raquel Robinson portrays does not lend itself to the critical analysis of a Dr. Phil. It needs the insights of a Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, the depth and wisdom of a Maya Angelo, and the loving hand of a man.”

©Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories


Wendy Raquel Robinson posing on red carpet